[Idiom] SUFFER PENALTY

[EverLivingPoet]

If one can "avoid penalty", can one also "suffer penalty", without an "a" or using a plural?

 

[Raymott]

If one can "avoid penalty", can one also "suffer penalty", without an "a" or using a plural?

It's not common and I wouldn't use it. (In fact, I can't remember ever having heard it.) However, as you've discovered, "Avoid penalty" is sometimes used.

PS: Of course, you could use the phrase in a poem.

 

[EverLivingPoet]

So, I cannot just "cause penalty", but could "cause a penalty"?

 

[Route21]

So, I cannot just "cause penalty", but could "cause a penalty"?

As a NES (BrE), but not a teacher, other than possibly in a sporting context, I would normally have said: "cause a penalty to be incurred".

Regards
R21

 

[Raymott]

So, I cannot just "cause penalty", but could "cause a penalty"?

I'm not sure how you deduced that. But neither "cause penalty" nor "cause a penalty" is a proper phrase - unless you have a specific context that we could consider.
Who is the person who "causes" a penalty - the one who sets the penalty for an offence, the one who imposes it, or the one who incurs it?

 

[Route21]

But neither "cause penalty" nor "cause a penalty" is a proper phrase - unless you have a specific context that we could consider.

As a NES, but not a teacher, I would have no problem with a sports commentator saying: "Jones, by fouling his opponent in the last few minutes of the game, caused a penalty, which robbed his side of the victory they would have so justly deserved".

Regards
R21